Penn State University Libraries Select Serials Solutions’ Summon™ Discovery Service

Penn State University Libraries Select Serials Solutions’ Summon™ Discovery Service

Improving resource discoverability was vital in the selection of the Summon™ service

Oct. 11, 2010 – Seattle – Serials Solutions, a business unit of ProQuest LLC, announced today Penn State University Libraries have chosen to adopt the Summon™ web-scale discovery service to help improve access and usability of library resources for its students, faculty and staff. Penn State Libraries rank among the top 10 research libraries in North America, according to annual statistics of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) statistics.

"With an extensive collection of books, journals and digital collections, we found we needed a new discovery service,” said Barbara I. Dewey, dean of University Libraries and Scholarly Communications. “After evaluating numerous tools, we chose the Summon service because of its single unified index and the speed and accuracy in which it returns results. We anticipate Summon will play a significant role in helping researchers more easily discover material in our collections."

Penn State Libraries hold more than 5.3 million volumes, 99,000 current journals and serials, almost 5.3 million microforms and more than a 125,000 electronic resources. These resources serve more than 90,000 students, and are located in 37 libraries at 24 locations across the state.

Dewey continued, “Information literacy is critical for our students. We are committed to providing them with the best tools available – such as Summon – so they can discover the world of information and ideas that can be found in our libraries.”

Serials Solutions is continually making improvements to its web-scale discovery service, which also played a role in Penn State Libraries’ decision to select the Summon™ service. An example of this is the recent integration of content from Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science℠. This integration enables display of cited-by counts in Summon™ search results for mutual subscribers, which highlights the highest impact articles for researchers. The Summon™ service will also use citation counts as an element of relevance ranking.

“We are pleased that a world-class institution such as Penn State University Libraries has selected Summon,” said John Law, vice president discovery services with Serials Solutions. “Penn State Libraries joins more than 120 libraries worldwide who have adopted Summon.”

About The Summon™ Service

The Summon™ service enables a familiar Web-searching experience of the full breadth of content found in library collections – from books and videos to e-resources such as articles. It aims to bring researchers back to library content and resources by providing a premiere and easy-to-use discovery tool. Librarians like the Summon™ service’s power to transform their institution’s search experience, and have found it easy to set up and integrate into their current library operations. To learn more visit: http://www.serialsolutions.com/summon.

About Penn State

Penn State is a multi-campus public research university that educates students from Pennsylvania, the nation and the world, and improves the well being and health of individuals and communities through integrated programs of teaching, research, and service. Its educational programs are enriched by the cutting edge knowledge, diversity, and creativity of its faculty, students, and staff.

About Serials Solutions

Founded by a librarian for librarians in 2000, Serials Solutions® is the global leader in E-Resource Access and Management Services (ERAMS) that serves more than 3,000 libraries of all sizes and types. Serials Solutions’ comprehensive suite of discovery tools and management services helps improve access to and use of collections, eases librarian workloads and ultimately reduces operating costs. Solutions include: 360, the only complete and integrated e-resource access and management solution; KnowledgeWorks, the authoritative e-resource knowledgebase and foundation for Serials Solutions 360; Ulrich’s, the world’s most authoritative source of bibliographic and publisher information for serials and the most comprehensive source of print and electronic serials data available; AquaBrowser®, a discovery layer that makes navigation more accessible; and most recently the Summon™ web-scale discovery service, a world-class tool that provides instant access to the full breadth of the library’s collection through a single search.

Serials Solutions is a business unit of ProQuest LLC.

11 October 2010

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